1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oven, and more particularly, to a heating unit of an oven, capable of efficiently heating food put in the inside of the oven. The present invention still more particularly relates to an oven and a heating unit of the oven, capable of more swiftly performing cooking of food and improving an operation efficiency of the oven through an appropriate heating method.
2. Description of the Related Art
An oven cooks food by providing a high temperature environment in the inside of a cavity, and is used for any item as well as food requiring high temperature. A heating unit is mounted in the inside of the oven to provide a high temperature environment in the inside of the oven. The heating unit may be one or more heaters and/or a magnetron. Heat and/or electro-magnetic wave generated from the heater and/or the magnetron is delivered to an item such as food to heat the item.
The heater will be described in more detail.
The heater of the oven includes a heat generating body to which power applied from the outside is delivered. The heat generated from the heat generating body is delivered to food through radiation and convection. The oven operates in this manner. Since heat may be delivered to other parts of the oven, not the food while the heat is delivered to the food through the radiation and the convection, a heating efficiency of the food by the heater may decrease. That is, the heat generated from the heat generating body may not be efficiently used but just discarded. Also, even when heating is performed using electro-magnetic waves generated from the magnetron, part of the electro-magnetic waves are not delivered to food but to other parts of the oven, so that a heating efficiency of the food by the magnetron may also decrease. Also, when the electro-magnetic waves generated from the magnetron leak from the cavity, the leaked electromagnetic waves are harmful to a human body and a safety problem is generated.
As described above, since the heat generated from the heater is delivered to the food through a predetermined medium such as air in the heater used for the related art oven, the amount of heat directly delivered to the food is small, which decreases an operation efficiency of the oven.
Also, since heat applied from the heater is delivered to only the surface of the food, the inner portion of the food is not properly heated. Therefore, frequently, even when the surface of the food is properly cooked, the inner portion of the food may be not sufficiently cooked. Furthermore, regarding the surface of the food, a surface on which heat is directly applied, e.g., a part facing the heater is sufficiently heated but a lower side portion contacting a pan, or left/right side portions may not be sufficiently heated frequently.
Also, when the low amount of heat is applied for a long time in order to cook even the inner portion of the food, a cooking time is lengthened and thus a user inconvenience is generated.